docs/faq-xcatalogs.xml

<?xml version='1.0' encoding='UTF-8'?>
<!--
 * Licensed to the Apache Software Foundation (ASF) under one or more
 * contributor license agreements.  See the NOTICE file distributed with
 * this work for additional information regarding copyright ownership.
 * The ASF licenses this file to You under the Apache License, Version 2.0
 * (the "License"); you may not use this file except in compliance with
 * the License.  You may obtain a copy of the License at
 * 
 *      http://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0
 * 
 * Unless required by applicable law or agreed to in writing, software
 * distributed under the License is distributed on an "AS IS" BASIS,
 * WITHOUT WARRANTIES OR CONDITIONS OF ANY KIND, either express or implied.
 * See the License for the specific language governing permissions and
 * limitations under the License.
-->
<!DOCTYPE faqs SYSTEM 'dtd/faqs.dtd'>
<faqs title="Using XML Catalogs">

  <faq title="Usage">
    <q>How do I use OASIS XML Catalogs with the parser?</q>
    <a>
     <p>
      In order to use XML Catalogs with Xerces, the 
      Apache <jump href="http://xml.apache.org/commons/">XML Commons</jump> Resolver: 
      <code>resolver.jar</code> needs to be on your classpath (or accessible
      in some other way to the ClassLoader). The resolver provides an implementation
      of <jump href="http://www.oasis-open.org/committees/download.php/14809/xml-catalogs.html">OASIS XML Catalogs v1.1</jump>
      as well as some <link anchor='xcatalogs-other-formats'>other</link> catalog formats. The XML Commons Resolver 1.2 is included with 
      the binary distribution of Xerces. For information about interacting directly with 
      the Resolver's API visit the <jump href="http://xml.apache.org/commons/">XML Commons</jump>
      site.
     </p>
     <p>
      As a convenience for users the parser provides a utility class:
      <code>org.apache.xerces.util.XMLCatalogResolver</code> which encapsulates
      the XML Commons Resolver exposing methods relevant to resolving XML entities.
      It implements the (<code>org.apache.xerces.xni.parser.XMLEntityResolver</code>)
      XNI entity resolver, the (<code>org.xml.sax.EntityResolver</code>) SAX entity resolver 
      and the (<code>org.w3c.dom.ls.LSResourceResolver</code>) DOM resource resolver
      interfaces. In <code>XMLCatalogResolver</code> the resolveEntity methods only query the 
      catalog for a mapping of the given identifier. These methods may be overrided if
      other behaviour is required.
     </p>
     <p>
      To use <code>XMLCatalogResolver</code> as an XNI EntityResolver you need
      to do something like this:
     </p>
     <source>import org.apache.xerces.util.XMLCatalogResolver;
import org.xml.sax.*;

...

XMLReader reader;
String [] catalogs =  
  {"file:///C:/catalog/cat1.xml", "file:///C:/catalog/cat2.xml"};

...

// Create catalog resolver and set a catalog list.
XMLCatalogResolver resolver = new XMLCatalogResolver();
resolver.setPreferPublic(true);
resolver.setCatalogList(catalogs);

// Set the resolver on the parser.
reader.setProperty(
  "http://apache.org/xml/properties/internal/entity-resolver", 
  resolver);

...</source>
     <p>
      Note that setting an XNI entity resolver on a SAX or DOM parser will
      replace any type of entity resolver which was previously registered. If 
      some other type of resolver is registered on the parser it will replace 
      any XNI entity resolver previously registered.
     </p>
     <p>
      In addition to being used as an entity resolver, it is intended that 
      the <code>XMLCatalogResolver</code> may be used standalone to perform 
      catalog resolution outside of a parsing context. It may also be shared
      between several parsers and the application. See the <link idref="api">API</link> 
      documentation for details.
     </p>
     <note>
      The XMLCatalogResolver class requires the XML Commons Resolver 1.1 
      or a version compatible with 1.1.
     </note>
    </a>
  </faq>
  
  <faq title="Resolving XML Schemas">
    <q>How does XMLCatalogResolver resolve XML Schemas?</q>
    <a>
     <p>
      If an instance of <code>XMLCatalogResolver</code> has been registered on the
      parser as an entity resolver it will first try to lookup the schema in the catalog
      by its target namespace if it has one using the catalog's <code>uri</code>
      entries. If the schema has no target namespace, or the namespace is unavailable
      or no mapping for the namespace could be found the resolver will then try 
      to locate the schema using any location hints provided. These location hints 
      are interpreted to be system identifiers.
     </p>
     <note>
      When XMLCatalogResolver is registered as a SAX entity resolver, the
      target namespace of the schema will not be available.
     </note>
     <p>
      The example below demonstrates resolution of URI references for the 
      purpose of reading XML Schema documents. It's assumed that all the files are 
      located in the same directory and that the list of catalog entry files 
      consists only of <strong>catalog.xml</strong> and that an instance of
      <code>XMLCatalogResolver</code> has been registered on the parser as an XNI entity resolver. 
      The parser has been instructed to parse and validate the instance document 
      <strong>example.xml</strong> against an XML Schema. No location hints are provided so only 
      the namespace of the schema components is known. When the parser attempts to locate the 
      schema for the namespace <strong>"http://apache.org/xml/xcatalog/example"</strong> it 
      would first query the catalog <strong>catalog.xml</strong> to resolve the namespace to 
      the URI for the schema. The resolver would find that the mapping for the namespace URI is 
      <strong>example.xsd</strong> and then return this to the parser. The parser would 
      then load the schema, enabling it to validate the instance document.
     </p>
     <source>example.xml:
&lt;?xml version="1.0"?&gt;
&lt;root xmlns="http://apache.org/xml/xcatalog/example"&gt;
http://apache.org/xml/anyURI&lt;/root&gt;

example.xsd:
&lt;?xml version="1.0"?&gt;
&lt;xs:schema xmlns:xs="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema"
           xmlns="http://apache.org/xml/xcatalog/example"
           targetNamespace="http://apache.org/xml/xcatalog/example"&gt;
 &lt;xs:element name="root" type="xs:anyURI"/&gt;
&lt;/xs:schema&gt;

catalog.xml:
&lt;!DOCTYPE catalog
 PUBLIC "-//OASIS//DTD Entity Resolution XML Catalog V1.0//EN"
 "http://www.oasis-open.org/committees/entity/release/1.0/catalog.dtd"&gt;
&lt;catalog xmlns="urn:oasis:names:tc:entity:xmlns:xml:catalog"
         prefer="public"&gt;
 &lt;uri name="http://apache.org/xml/xcatalog/example"
      uri="example.xsd"/&gt;
&lt;/catalog&gt;</source>
    </a>
  </faq>
  
  <faq title="Resolving DTDs and other External Entities">
    <q>How does XMLCatalogResolver resolve DTDs and other external entities?</q>
    <a>
     <p>
      If an instance of <code>XMLCatalogResolver</code> has been registered on 
      the parser as an entity resolver it will try to lookup the DTD
      or external entity in the catalog using the system identifier and 
      public identifier if one is available.
     </p>
     <p>
      The example below demonstrates resolution of external identifiers for the
      purpose of reading external entities. Resolution of external DTD subsets and 
      external parameter entities can be done similarly. It's assumed that all the 
      files are located in the same directory and that the list of catalog entry 
      files consists only of <strong>catalog.xml</strong> and that an instance of
      <code>XMLCatalogResolver</code> has been registered on the parser as an 
      entity resolver. When the parser references the entity named <strong>text</strong> 
      in the instance document <strong>example.xml</strong> it would query the catalog 
      <strong>catalog.xml</strong> to resolve the public identifier.  Note that 
      the system identifier is in an URN and after "unwrapping" is equivalent to 
      the public identifier. Since there is no mapping in this catalog for the public 
      identifier, <strong>catalog.xml</strong> would delegate to <strong>catalog2.xml</strong>
      since the public id starts with <strong>"-//A//"</strong>. Upon reading 
      <strong>catalog2.xml</strong> the resolver would find a mapping for 
      <strong>"-//A//XML CATALOG IDENTIFIER//EN"</strong> and then return the 
      URI <strong>example.ent</strong>. The parser would then open this resource and 
      then report "Hello world!" as the replacement text for the entity named <strong>text</strong>.
     </p>
     <source>example.xml:
&lt;?xml version="1.0"?&gt;
&lt;!DOCTYPE root [
 &lt;!ENTITY text PUBLIC "-//A//XML CATALOG IDENTIFIER//EN" 
  "urn:publicid:-:A:XML+CATALOG+IDENTIFIER:EN"&gt;
]&gt;
&lt;root&gt;&amp;text;&lt;/root&gt;

example.ent:
Hello world!

catalog.xml:
&lt;!DOCTYPE catalog
 PUBLIC "-//OASIS//DTD Entity Resolution XML Catalog V1.0//EN"
 "http://www.oasis-open.org/committees/entity/release/1.0/catalog.dtd"&gt;
&lt;catalog xmlns="urn:oasis:names:tc:entity:xmlns:xml:catalog"
         prefer="public"&gt;
 &lt;delegatePublic publicIdStartString="-//A//"
                 catalog="catalog2.xml"/&gt;
&lt;/catalog&gt;

catalog2.xml:
&lt;!DOCTYPE catalog
 PUBLIC "-//OASIS//DTD Entity Resolution XML Catalog V1.0//EN"
 "http://www.oasis-open.org/committees/entity/release/1.0/catalog.dtd"&gt;
&lt;catalog xmlns="urn:oasis:names:tc:entity:xmlns:xml:catalog"
         prefer="public"&gt;
 &lt;public publicId="-//A//XML CATALOG IDENTIFIER//EN" 
         uri="example.ent"/&gt;
&lt;/catalog&gt;</source>
    </a>
  </faq>
  
  <faq title="The XML Catalogs Processing Instruction">
    <q>Does the parser read the 'oasis-xml-catalog' processing instruction?</q>
    <a>
     <p>
      No, the parser has no built in support for these processing instructions,
      however the XML Commons Resolver includes a SAX XMLFilter called
      <code>org.apache.xml.resolver.tools.ResolvingXMLFilter</code> which
      is able to process them.
     </p>
    </a>
  </faq>

  <faq title="Other Catalog Formats">
    <q>Are other catalog formats supported?</q>
    <a>
     <anchor name='xcatalogs-other-formats'/>
     <p>
      Xerces only includes a utility class for OASIS XML Catalogs, however
      the XML Commons Resolver supports a few other catalog formats
      including: the plain text format described by OASIS
      <jump href="http://www.oasis-open.org/specs/a401.htm">TR 9401</jump>
      and the XCatalog XML format defined by John Cowan. For more information 
      visit the <jump href="http://xml.apache.org/commons/">XML Commons</jump> site.
     </p>
    </a>
  </faq>

</faqs>